North American 2026 World Cup hosting bid won votes around the globe

The Koreans voted for Morocco rather than the winning joint bid of the U.S., Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 World Cup.

South Korea cancelled out the North Korean ballot and the North American bid picked up 133 more votes to defeat Morocco 134-65 in a vote of FIFA member associations on Wednesday at the FIFA Congress in Moscow. The joint bid carried the day with 67 per cent of the vote in a single ballot.

Iran was the lone association to choose the "none of the above" option in the electronic voting.

The North American bid had CONCACAF, its home confederation, solidly behind it.

CONCACAF, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean, voted 29-0 in favour of the North American bid. Cuba abstained.

"We knew we had their support," Peter Montopoli, general secretary of the Canadian Soccer Association and Canada's bid director, said in an interview. "But they also knew that this was best for CONCACAF."

It helped that the CONCACAF president is Victor Montagliani, a native of East Vancouver who was twice elected president of the Canadian Soccer Association and under whom the Canadian bid was launched.

Perhaps more surprising is the success the North American bid had in the African confederation (CAF). While Morocco got 41 votes from its continental neighbours, 11 went to the North America bid.

CSA president Steve Reed and Mexican counterpart Decio de Maria both spent time in Africa in the final days before Wednesday's vote.

"We couldn't say much, but we had a strong conviction of 10-plus (votes in Africa)," said Montopoli.